Mid-season ratings pitstop

This will be one very positive post due to the nature of its content. Since people seem to like these, and I am more than happy to oblige, we shall discuss the ratings so far this season, compare them to some other shows (yes, most notably True Blood), and enjoy the visualization by means of a nice little graph. Again, note that all viewer numbers refer to the first airing only, and that the graphs of longer seasons have been smoothed and scaled to correspond to the 10-episode run of GoT. Here we go! (You can click to enlarge it.)

That is some steeply rising curve! In the first two seasons, the increase during the runs was much more modest. The series opened at just above 2 million, and reached 3 million in the season finale (an increase of 0.8 million). Season two finale brought the ratings across the 4 million line for the first time (an increase of 0.4 million over the season). Although there was no large jump in numbers between seasons this year, it took only five episodes to pass a new milestone of 5 million (a 1.0 million, or 22%, increase from the season opening of 4.37 so far already). Since the series launched two years ago, the viewership increased by a factor of 2.5x.

As you can see, Game of Thrones was ahead of True Blood during the first season, but then TB ratings exploded during the second season, while GoT kept a more steady pace. It took Thrones another season to experience that same kind of spurt, and is now ahead of TB episode for episode. True Blood plateaued in the low-to-mid 5 millions in the second half of the third season, and kept hovering at about that level for the most part in later seasons as well (the single episode record is 5.53 million from late in season 4). If — nah, when! — Game of Thrones reaches 6 million viewers per initial airing, it will be decidedly and unequivocally ahead of True Blood in the ratings and HBO’s most successful show since The Sopranos. Between the subscriptions (insofar people subscribe due to GoT), foreign rights, box set and digital sales, and merchandise, it is already making them more money than any other show, despite its rather lavish production budget.

These trends translate to an increasing total viewership as well. Unfortunately we do not get regular updates on those numbers (which makes the weekly ones more valuable). At the moment, Game of Thrones is seen by 13.4 million people each week on average across all platforms (the previous number we had was 11.6). Since we are in the business of True Blood comparisons – the latest TB record is 12.6 million per week, so GoT is now well ahead in that respect. Interestingly, 13.4 million matches the current total viewership of The Walking Dead (though the initial views exceed those of Thrones by a lot due to the show airing on basic cable).

Hear Me Roar: I could not be more happy about the success of the show, which of course goes beyond these numbers we keep bouncing around. So, where is all this headed? Speculate below (as if you needed an invitation).

• Published on 05/01/2013 at 1:45 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 12:02 PM CDT